Combination air conditioning and foam plug fire extinguishing system



Sheets-Sheet 1 Feb. .14, 1967 .1. TATTERSALL EI'AL COMBINATION AIRCONDITIONING AND FOAM PLUG FIRE EXTINGUISHING SYSTEM Filed March 24,1965 INVENTORS JOHN TATTERSAL ERNEST A JOERREN AGENT 2 Sheets-Sheet 2Feb. 14, 1967 J. TATTERSALL ET AL COMBINATION AIR CONDITIONING AND FOAMPLUG [IRE EXTINGUISHING SYSTEM Filed March 24, 1965 FIG.2

INVENTORS JOHN TATTERSAL BY ERNEST A. JOERREN United States Patent3,303,886 COMBINATION AIR CONDITIONING AND FOAM PLUG FIRE EXTIN-GUISHINGSYSTEM John Tattersall, Ridgewood, N.J., and Ernest A. Joerren,

Brooklyn, N.Y., assignors to Specialties Development Corporation,Believille, N.J., a corporation of New Jersey Filed Mar. 24, 1965, Ser.No. 442,311 8 Claims. (Cl. 169-16) The present invention relates to fireextinguishing, and more particularly to an improved system forextinguishing fires in enclosures.

Heretofore, no satisfactory automatic fire extinguishing system has beenknown which is suitable in the rooms of dwellings or other compartmentedbuildings. Sprinkler systems have been used which spray water fromnozzles which open in response to heat, but such systems are neithereffective or reliable to put out a sizeable fire. Systems have beenproposed which are installed under the ceiling and allow a mass of drypowdered chemicals to fall on the fire, but these too are neithereffective or reliable. Both types of these systems furthermore areobjectionable because the installation thereof is unsightly and nottolerable in a home, and because of the damage done to furnishings bythe extinguishing medium.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide animproved fire extinguishing system for compartmented enclosures such asthe rooms of dwellings or other buildings which system is not subject tothe foregoing difliculties and objections.

Another object is to provide such a system which is operable toextinguish fires in all the rooms of the building or to protect otherrooms against the spreading of a fire being extinguished in one or morerooms.

Another object is to provide such a system which is operable toselectively extinguish a fire in any given room to thereby concentrateon the location of the fire and to extinguish the same more rapidly witha minimum of fire extinguishing medium.

Another object is to provide such a system which is manually and/orautomatically operated.

A further object is to provide such a system which is simple andeconomical in construction, is reliable and efficient in operation, andis readily installed.

Other and further objects of the invention will be obvious upon anunderstanding of the illustrative embodiment about to be described, orwill be indicated in the appended claims, and various advantages notreferred to herein will occur to one skilled in the art upon employmentof the invention in practice.

In accordance with the present invention, the foregoing objects aregenerally accomplished by utilizing an air conditioning trunk-line ductsystem and a high expansion foam plug generator connected to the ductsystem.

By air conditioning is meant, temperature control (heating and/ orcooling) and/ or moisture control of air which is delivered by a ductsystem to a plurality of rooms of a dwelling or the like.

By a high expansion foam plug generator is meant, apparatus such asshown in US. Patent 3,142,340 which produces foam from water, a foamingagent and air with as many at 2,000 volumes of stable foam beingproduced from one volume of water containing about 1.5% to 2% foamingagent. Such foam can be conveyed into an enclosure to fill or plug thesame through a conduit under the influence of a fan for delivering thefoam producing air to rapidly and effectively extinguish a fire in theenclosure.

More specifically, the foregoing objects are accomplished by a systemcompirsing in combination a trunkline duct system having an upstreaminlet and a plurality of downstream branch duct outlets, an airconditioning system having an outlet connected to the duct system inlet,a high expansion foam plug generator having an outlet connected betweenthe duct system inlet and upstream of all of the branch duct outlets, afirst closure in the duct system between its inlet and the foam pluggenerator outlet operable to prevent the foam plug from entering the airconditioning system outlet, and a second closure upstream of the foamplug generator outlet operable to prevent the conditioned air fromentering the foam plug generator.

A preferred embodiment of the invention has been chosen for purposes ofillustration and description, and is shown in the accompanying drawings,forming a part of the specification, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a system in accordance with the presentinvention including a simplified electrical wiring diagram.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary schematic sectional view of a closure suitablefor use with the air conditioning system outlet and the foam pluggenerator outlet.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary schematic sectional view of a closure suitablefor use with the branch duct outlets.

Referring now to FIG. 1 of the drawings in detail; there is shown a fireextinguishing system which generally comprises an air conditioningsystem 10 including a blower 11, a high expansion foam plug generator 12such as shown in Patent 3,142,340, a trunk-line duct system 14 includinga plurality of branch duct outlets 15, valves or closures in the ductsystem, and electrical components connected for controlling theoperation of the closures as described hereinafter.

The air conditioning system 10 may be of any conventional type whichsupplies warm and/0r cool air to the rooms of a dwelling through theduct system 14 by means of the blower 11 at the upstream inlet 16 of theduct system.

The foam plug generator 12, as already indicated may be of the typeshown in Patent 3,142,340 which has an outlet 17 connected in the ductsystem between the duct system inlet 16 and all of the branch ductoutlets 15.

A first closure 18 is provided in the duct system between its inlet 16and the foam plug generator outlet 17 which normally is open to allowair to be supplied to the branch duct outlets 15 but is operable to beclosed to prevent the foam plug when generated from entering the airconditioning system 10. A second closure 19 is provided upstream of thefoam plug generator outlet 17 which normally is closed to preventconditioned air from entering the foam plug generator but is operable tobe opened to discharge the foam plug into the duct system.

While only three branch duct outlets 15 have been shown for purposes ofillustration any required number may be provided. Each of these outletsis provided with closure means 20 which are normally open to dischargeeither conditioned air or in the event of a fire to discharge a foamplug into all of the rooms of the dwelling when the system is unattendedto assure extinguishment of the fire at its origin, and to preventspreading thereof by filling the entire dwelling with foam. However,when the system is attended by a person within the dwelling when a firebreaks out, the closure means of the rooms or areas other than thelocation of the fire may be closed to conserve foam by avoiding needlessfilling of rooms therewith and to assure more rapid extinguish ment ofthe fire.

The system so far has been described as being manually operable, butpreferably an electrical network is provided for accomplishing automaticoperation. Such a network is powered by a standby battery 25 rather thanrelying on house current which may not be available should the dwellingbe struck by lightning with a fire resulting. The network as shownessentially comprises a solenoid 26 which when energized shuts down theair conditioning system including the blower; a solenoid 27 which whenenergized closes the closure 18; a solenoid 28 which when energizedeffects operation of the foam plug generator 12; a solenoid 29 whichwhen energized opens the closure 19; and a switch 30 for energizing thesolenoids 2629 which is manually operable or operable in response to afire detecting arrangement of any conventional type. If desired, theopening of the closure 19 may be delayed by connecting a time delayelement 31 between the solenoid 29 and the switch 30. If desired, theclosure means can be selectively operated to close the same from aremote location by solenoids 32 powered by the battery through switches34.

In FIG. 2, a louver arrangement 35 is shown which serves as the closures18 and 19. The arrangement for the closure 18 may be held normally openas shown in full lines, while the arrangement for the closure 19 may beheld normally closed as shown in broken lines.

In FIG. 3, a flap valve arrangement 37 is shown which serves as theclosure means 20 for the branch duct outlets 15 and which is normallyheld open by a counterweight 38 and is closed by a solenoid 32.

An advantage of discharging the foam plug through an air conditioningduct system is that the branches of the duct are proportioned in crosssectional area to deliver an amount of air depending upon the size ofthe rooms, whereby the amount of foam discharged into the rooms islikewise proportioned so that each room can be filled or plugged withfoam in about the same period of time.

As a practical example of a system in accordance with the presentinvention it has been found that a dwelling having an enclosed volume ofabout 24,000 cubic feet can be completely filled in about four to fiveminutes by a foam plug generator having a foam generating about 6,000cubic feet per minute. Such a generator requires about 6,000 cubic feetof air and about 45 gallons or six cubic feet per minute of watercontaining about 1.5% foaming agent.

From the foregoing description, it will be seen that the presentinvention provides an improved fire extinguishing system for enclosures.

As various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangementof the parts herein, without departing from the spirit and scope of theinvention and without sacrificing any of its advantages, it is to beunderstood that all matter herein is to be interpreted as illustrativeand not in any limiting sense.

We claim:

1. In a fire extinguishing system, the combination of a trunk-line ductsystem having an upstream inlet and a plurality of downstream branchduct outlets, an air conditioning system having an outlet connected tosaid duct system inlet, a high expansion foam plug generator having anoutlet connected between said duct system inlet and upstream of all ofsaid branch duct outlets, a first closure in said duct system betweenits inlet and said foam plug generator outlet operable to prevent thefoam plug from entering said air conditioning system outlet, and asecond closure upstream of said foam plug generator outlet operable toprevent the conditioned air from entering said foam plug generator.

2. In a system according to claim 1, wherein said branch ducts areequipped with closure means selectively operable to prevent the foamplug from being discharged through said branch duct outlets.

3. In a system according to claim 1, including mechanism for opening andclosing said first and said second closures, and a control system foreffecting closing of said first closure and opening of said secondclosure.

4. In a system according to claim 3, wherein said control systemincludes means for delaying the opening of said second closure untilsaid first closure has been closed.

5. In a system according to claim 2, including mechanism forindividually opening and closing each of said closure means, and acontrol system for selectively operating said mechanisms.

6. In a system according to claim 5, including mechanism for opening andclosing said first and said second closures, and means in said controlsystem for effecting closing of said first closure and opening of saidsecond closure.

7. In a system according to claim 6, wherein said control systemincludes means for delaying the opening of said second closure untilsaid first closure has been closed.

8. In a system according to claim 5, where said mechanisms include meansfor normally maintaining said closure means open and for effectingopening of said closure means when said mechanisms are ineffective toclose said closure means.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,004,074 9/1911Powers. 2,825,145 3/ 1958 Scott et al. 3,142,340 7/1964 Jamison 169-15M. HENSON WOOD, JR., Primary Examiner.

V. C. WILKS, Assistant Examiner.

1. IN A FIRE EXTINGUISHING SYSTEM, THE COMBINATION OF A TRUNK-LINE DUCTSYSTEM HAVING AN UPSTREAM INLET AND A PLURALITY OF DOWNSTREAM BRANCHDUCT OUTLETS, AN AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM HAVING AN OUTLET CONNECTED TOSAID DUCT SYSTEM INLET, A HIGH EXPANSION FOAM PLUG GENERATOR HAVING ANOUTLET CONNECTED BETWEEN SAID DUCT SYSTEM INLET AND UPSTREAM OF ALL OFSAID BRANCH DUCT OUTLETS, A FIRST CLOSURE IN SAID DUCT SYSTEM BETWEENITS INLET AND SAID FOAM PLUG GENERATOR OUTLET OPERABLE TO PREVENT THEFOAM PLUG FROM ENTERING SAID AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM OUTLET,